Football: Harry Kane priceless for England

Tottenham's Harry Kane drilled home a penalty against Lithuania - his 12th goal for England in 23 games. Photo / AP

Pep Guardiola referred to Tottenham Hotspur as "the Harry Kane team" but his phrase is far more applicable to another side who play in white.

Where would England be without Kane? It is no stretch to say that if he had been born in Lithuania and not London then England might well not have won their final World Cup qualifier. It was that damning.

The hosts had enough chances and Kane would have taken at least one of them.

One thing is for certain, though, and that is that Kane is not weighed down by the captaincy. Four times the striker has led his country, each time he has scored, becoming the first player ever to do so, with his first-half penalty proving decisive.

But then we always knew that Kane was not the problem. The heaviness of the England shirt, the fear of playing for the Three Lions, the lack of big players - as manager Gareth Southgate said - and the dearth of talent available, especially in midfield. There are the issues.

Yesterday's 1-0 win against Lithuania was as lacklustre as last Friday, given the modesty of the opposition, when England stumbled to victory over Slovenia to seal their qualification for next summer's World Cup at the head of Group F - with another Kane goal, of course, that night.

Here the result really did not matter. This was about that performance not points. This was about players showing they deserve to go to Russia and about Southgate showing that there are signs for encouragement and, frankly, it was a loss in that regard. Those signs were not there. There are issues for the manager, also. It cries out louder and louder: what is his plan? What does he want from his England team? They are slow, painfully so, and lacking in courage on the ball. Southgate spoke about being "a fraction off" but it was a gulf. The plastic pitch did not help but that excuse only goes so far.

Supporters walking out in Malta, paper aeroplanes at Wembley and, against Lithuania, an ironic chant of "it's just like watching Brazil". It really was not. But this is England 2017. They have to play better than this. It is, quite frankly, boring.

This was the youngest England line-up for 15 years - average age 23.7 - and there is a sliver of mitigation in that, plus the fact Southgate made seven changes. Young and, also, relatively inexperienced with 120 caps between them before kick-off - only one more than Wayne Rooney, alone, amassed in his international career.

There were three full debuts - Aaron Cresswell, Harry Maguire and Harry Winks and it was Winks, another Spurs player, who was the pick, and maybe England's best player. At least the 21-year-old tried to fill the creative void and attempted to pass the ball forward and he almost scored in the second-half when his quick feet created space only for goalkeeper Ernestas Setkus to push his shot over.

There has to be hope, also, in a front three of Kane, Dele Alli and Marcus Rashford, but it was so disappointing that they started well and then faded. Rashford showed flashes, Alli won the penalty but was poor, which is a growing concern now, and Kane persevered but had so little service.

Alongside Winks, this was another concerning performance from Jordan Henderson, whose passing was simply not good enough. Yet Henderson, also, was involved in the penalty award as he headed the ball into the area for Alli to collect before he was challenged by Linas Klimavicius and tumbled over. The spot-kick was given when it probably should not and Kane steered a low right-foot penalty that struck the post and rebounded into the net.

It was his 12th goal for England in 23 appearances - his seventh in his past six games, his 15th in his past 10 matches for club and country and his 43rd in 37 appearances in 2017.

Only four of those have been penalties.

So, England won. This was their last competitive game before the World Cup. They have a lot of work to do.

They cannot be the Harry Kane team, no matter how good he is.